China just cut off the supply of five critical minerals to the U.S.: dysprosium, terbium, tungsten, indium, and yttrium. They are required for jet engines, magnets, computer parts, lasers, and much more - and China controls most of the world's production of each of them
@vaurora I'm super confused about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysprosium#Production
It seems to mention a bunch of contradictory info. 100 tons per year produced, 99% of which in China, but also 50 tons per year in Australia? At the very least it's badly edited.
@Merovius Not uncommon on Wikipedia, where various editors add facts over time, sometimes without reading the existing page too closely.
I found this EU page https://rmis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/rmp/Dysprosium which gives a 2021 figure of 3126 tons produced, 40% of which was from China, 31% from Myanmar, and 20% from Australia.
Do I have to look at & update all of the rare-earth pages now? Maybe tomorrow!
@Merovius @akuchling Myanmar. That’s oke then…..
@akuchling @vaurora You are a hero. Far less lazy than me and others in the thread, you actually went looking for alternative sources :) And it seems Wikipedia has been updated - at least he section I linked.
Some other issues, too. Apparently 70% of China's feedstocks are sourced from Myanmar.
Since Dysprosium is actually a by-product of processing for Yttrium, production will be limited by Yttrium processing.